active.com - the new search interface is in a recession

I used to use active.com for searching for races. But over the past few months they've been migrating to a newer search interface. Problem is the new one isn't working half as well as the old one. Like the current economy, it seems to be in a recession. This is what has happened. First, they removed a link to the old interface which they used to call the "classic event search". This means you are forced to use the new one. However, the problem with the new one is that it doesn't do what you want it to do. I tried a search for races in San Diego, California in the time period from today (Dec 7, 2008) till Dec 31, 2008. This is what it gave me.



You'll notice two things wrong with the picture. One, there is no date listed next to the events and that means you have to click on each event to find that piece of information. Two, and more importantly, it shows events from Independence Day and Thanksgiving Day both of which are a few months out of the range I specified.

This is disappointing given that they do have all the information but just that it's not being displayed correctly. Hopefully, this is just a matter of time and they will resolve this issue soon.

How to become a wear tester for running shoes

Here's a simple two step process to becoming a wear tester for running shoes.

Step 1, you go to this site - http://weartest.newbalance.com/ - and sign up. This involves inputting some detailed information about your height, weight, foot widths, sizes, your running routines, etc.

Step 2, you wait. Patiently. Just because you signed up doesn't mean that they are going to start sending you shoes right away. It might be a few weeks, or even a few months. Their initial testing is primarily targeted at men's 9.5D and women's 7B and you have a better chance if you happen to be one of those.

The cool thing is you get to wear and test out shoes before they are available publicly. You get to keep them for a few days and run in them. At the end of the test, you return them, along with a detailed questionnaire about the shoes and your experience with them.

This is specifically for New Balance since that was my experience. I got to wear test the MR805. This is a lightweight trainer and meant primarily for interval training and speed work on the track. I liked the grip very much. Tested it on both the track and on wet roads and the grip was excellent. It's lightweight shoe and I'd definitely recommend it, based on my limited experience.

Dragging myself to a new PR

This weekend, I ran a 5K. Finished in 19:49 - a new PR. My old one was 19:55, set way back in 2004. The race was a bit blah. Got there about two minutes after the scheduled start time. Saw some runners already on their way and figured I'd probably missed it. But, found out soon enough that it was the 10K start and that the 5K had been delayed by 10 minutes. That worked for me.

The race itself was tough - for me. At a couple of points after the half-way mark, I felt like stopping. Legs were quite beat up. A cup of water at mile 2 definitely made a big difference. Mile 1 was in 5:54, the next 1.1 mile in 7:04, and the last 1 mile in 6:47. Notice the gradual slowing down.

Even though it was a PR, I never really felt strong during the race. Part of it was probably the start where I thought I was late and part of it was probably to a 15-hour day on the day before the race when we went to the re-opening of the California Academy of Sciences, which, btw, is a great place to visit. I was on my feet for over 9 hours.

After mile 1, I could hear footsteps behind me. For some reason, mistaking myself to be Haile Gebreselassie (who had set a new world record in the marathon the same day in Berlin) I put in a little surge to break away from them. Needless to say, reality caught up with me and so did those footsteps, and pretty soon I was passed by them - one of whom was a heart-attack survivor. I didn't know if my mouth was agape from amazement or just from the lack of breath. There was even a little 11 year old kid that was always ahead of me and ultimately finished in 18:12 something. Very impressive.

Comparing it to my 2004 PR was interesting. Fours years older and four pounds heavier, yet the time remains the same (19:55 vs. 19:49). Weekly mileage is/was the same in both cases. However, back in 2004, my usual runs were around 3-4 miles and I used to do speedwork once a week. Now, my runs are usually 5-8 miles but with no speedwork. Some of them are hilly, which is "speedwork in disguise." I figure with a bit of speedwork I should be able to go sub-19. However, what I think is more important is to work on my lactate threshold which is what was responsible for entertaining my feeble mind with thoughts of stopping during the race. We'll see what the next race brings.

Prefontaine Classic 2008

Last weekend, I went to the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. This year the meet started a bit early - at 9:30 a.m. with two specially arranged races. The men's 10,000m race where Kenenisa Bekele was to attempt to break his own world record. This was to be followed by another world record attempt, in the women's 5000m by Meserat Defar whose previous record had been broken by Tirunesh Dibaba only a couple of days before the meet.


That's Bekele in the pic above, with two of the guys that paced him. The race started off with great anticipation in the air. The meet commentator was great. He would tell us at the end of each lap what Bekele's current time was and compare it to his time in his world record run. Pretty much throughout he was behind by about 5-10 seconds.



In the end, he came close but didn't quite break it. 8 seconds was the difference. Nevertheless, the fastest time on American soil beating the previous best by 38 seconds. It was a great race. Lots of support from the crowd in general especially from a couple of Ethiopian contingents who showed up with their vibrant flags and colors and sounds. I think he might have made it if it were a bit cooler. Sitting there in the stands, I could feel the heat on my back.


It got hotter by the time Meseret Defar began her WR attempt. You could tell before even halfway through that this wasn't meant to be it.


She was off by a huge margin. However, she did set a new Pre Classic record. That's Kara Goucher above with Defar's time in the background. Goucher had a lot of support especially from this one woman sitting a few rows ahead of me who cried herself hoarse cheering Kara with each lap. Goucher looked exhausted for more than a few minutes after she stopped running. Similarly for Abdi Abdirahman - the local crowd was very enthusiatic for him.

Next was the women's 400m race that Sanya Richards (below) won quite easily.


The men's 100m followed - won by Darrell Brown in a not so exciting 10.07. No Bolt, Gay, or Powell though. Asafa Powell was in the Nutrilite tent signing autographs however. Then came the women's 1500 meters which was won by Gelete Burka in a new Pre Classic record of 4:0.44. Alfred Yego of Kenya set a new Pre Classic and Hayward Field record in the men's 800m with a time of 1:44.01. That's Yego below, at the finish line.


This was followed by the women's 100m hurdles. (As an aside, does anyone know why it's only 100m in the hurdles for women whereas it's 110m for the men?) Joanna Hayes won this race inspite of tripping over the last hurdle. This is how she did it.


While the races were on, Adam Nelson was helping set a new Hayward Field record. Hayward Field now has the maximum number of 70+ foot shot-put throws in any single stadium. This tidbit was courtesy of the commentator. (Wish I knew what his name was. He was excellent.) That's Nelson below on one of his throws. He even did a little victory lap in the shot-put pit - probably the shortest victory lap in athletics ever.


In another field event, Brad Walker won the pole vault setting a new American record of 19 feet 9-3/4 inches. He then attempted to go for the world record. The display shows 20 feet 2.5 inches which would've broken Sergey Bubka's world record from 1994.


The crowd was filled with anticipation yet again. Alas, yet again, they were disappointed. Nevertheless, it was a great performance. There was even a minor accident in the event when someone's pole broke in mid-air after he had just lifted off the ground. Thankfully, he hadn't gained much altitude and was able to safely come back down to earth. No pic though since I wasn't anticipating a pole breaking.

Next up was the one of the highlight events - the men's 2 mile race boasting a field of Bernard Lagat, Craig Mottram, Alan Webb, Saif Shaheen, Paul Koech, Rachid Ramzi. That's the field below.


Bernard Lagat won the race. Look at his Happy smile at the finish.


Then came the men's 200m. Wallace Spearmon won in a new Pre Classic record of 20.14. Below is the field coming onto the final stretch.



Next up was another highlight event - the men's mile. Among the field were Alan Webb, Daniel Komen, and Nick Willis. Shedrack Korir won, with the entire field coming in under 4 minutes. According to the commentator, there have now been 208 sub-4 minute performances.


There was even a Prefontaine lookalike - lane 1 below. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to map his bib, or rather hip number, to his name.



This brought us to the grand finale - the 800m womens race starring the crowd favorite - Maria Mutola. That's her below lining up for the start. The commentator was cool - he started the introductions lane by lane but when he got to her lane number, he said he'd skip it for a moment and then went on to finish the rest of the introductions. Then he came back to introduce Mutola and what an ovation she got. You had to be there to experience it. This was her last appearance at the Pre Classic and she had won this 15 times before.


She didn't disappoint her fans and won comfortably beating off a challenge from the young phenom Chanelle Price who actually took the lead in the first lap.



Right afterwards, the commentator announced the inaugural Maria Mutola award. This one went to none other than Brad Walker - with his new American record in the pole vault. Check out the swarm of photographers around them.



At some point they even introduced Prefontaine's mom and sister who were in the stands. They got up and waved. The crowd gave them a nice round of applause.

Overall, this was a great experience. A world record or two would've made it even better :) But, hey, that's not something you get to see everyday. Next year perhaps. If you're interested, this is my report from last year's meet.

Lineup for Prefontaine Classic 2008

What's the lineup for the Prefontaine Classic 2008? That's what I've been wondering too for the past couple of months. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to send an email to the organizers. I went to the main site - Prefontaine Classic and shot off an email to the id listed on that page. A week later I did get a response, telling me that they will be announcing the lineup this week. It also confirmed that Kenenisa Bekele will be running. If you look at their main page, it says Bekele as well as Meserat Defar will be attempting to break the men's and women's 5000 meter world record respectively. That's going to be something.

I was fortunate to get to go to the 2007 meet. Check out some pics here.

London marathon 2009 - 80,000 applicants in a day

I just happened to be browsing the London marathon website and this is what I found:

Due to an overwhelming response Phase 1 of the Flora London Marathon 2009 online entry ballot has now closed. The limit of 80,000 applicants was reached at 10pm on Monday 14 April.

Incredible. This is just a day after this year's race on April 13.

Hitting the wall

This is from yesterday's Osaka marathon. The lady in the Youtube link above is Kayoko Fukushi who was making her marathon debut. She fell down thrice in that last lap inside the stadium before finishing in 2:40:54. Just incredible. The video says it all.

Just for perspective, her half marathon best is 1:07:26.

How much can premature celebration cost?

How much could it cost you to celebrate too soon? Well, in this case, $60,000 and the rights to a marathon title.

This year's Chicago marathon apparently had an exciting finish in the women's race. Adriana Pirtrea had been leading Berhane Adere for miles. With less than a 1/4 mile to go, Pirtrea had a good lead of 80 yards. Unfortunately, she took the win for granted and started celebrating a bit too soon - jogging towards the finish and high-fiving spectators. Little did she realize when Adere caught up with her and blew past her and went on to win by 3 seconds. First prize - $125,000. Second prize - $65,000. Seems like the ingredients for the making of a Mastercard commercial.

On another note, the race director closed down the course after about four hours due to the intense heat (topping 88 F) and humidity. One person died on the course, about 50 had to be hospitalized, and 300 odd were treated on the course. Sure sounds like a tough one.

Chasing Kimbia

Came across this interesting site last week: chasingkimbia.com. In their own words:

chasingKIMBIA is a blogumentary that documents the lifestyle and training of some of the world's best marathon runners. In the fall of 2006 Matt Taylor lived with the athletes in their Boulder, Colorado apartment as they prepared for the Chicago and New York City marathons. The daily coverage was unprecedented for athletes of this caliber. Taylor's unrestricted access allowed him to provide a personal touch and a unique perspective into the lives of these otherwise super-human athletes.

Check it out. It makes for some interesting reading, especially if you are a runner. I found the entry for September 23rd very intriguing. It talks about the differences in the way Kenyan and American marathoners approach their goal. He gives the example of them trying to run a 2:08 marathon. The Kenyan goes out at a 2:08 pace on his first try and goes as far as he can. First time, maybe he gets to 25K at this pace. The next time, he gets up to 35K. On his third try, he might do 40K. Finally, he gets to his 2:08. On the other hand, an American starts off running a 2:16 marathon on his first try, a 2:13 on the second attempt, a 2:10 thereafter, and finally the 2:08. One is distance-based and the other is time-based.

Running through the seasons in merino wool

Has it ever happened to you that you put on a warm shirt to go running outside and discovered that it was a bit too warm? Maybe you put on a lightweight shirt and later found yourself staying out for an extended period of time and starting to feel cold? Surely there must be an easy solution to this problem than having to wear or take off multiple layers? Yes indeed, there is and it's called merino wool.

I discovered the joy of running in merino wool last year when I picked up a merino wool running shirt from REI. It's been a year, running through four seasons (or however many you can categorize California weather into) and I've been using it on a regular basis. Based on that experience, I can say that it's probably my favorite type of running shirt.

The cool thing about merino wool is that you can wear it when it cold outside or warm outside and it'll still maintain a comfortable temperature.It dries fast and doesn't hang to to sweat like cotton. I've used it in the 40F to 80F range with nary a complaint. Often, I might go for a hike/run combo and sometimes, I end up going elsewhere after the run, e.g., grab a bite to eat. The body tends to cool down after a while and it's in these moments that I find my merino wool shirt very convenient - I don't need to put on another layer. Then, of course, there are other benefits such as not having to worry about the shirt shrinking due to repeated wash-and-dry cycles and that it doesn't itch unlike some other materials. For temperatures below 40F, a lightweight shirt might not be sufficient depending on how you deal with cold. Likewise, once it gets above 80F, you might want to look at something even lighter such as some technical shirts made by Sugoi.

REI is a great place to buy merino wool shirts. Another good place to snag some bargains is Sierra Trading Post. Keep in mind that merino wool shirts typically cost more than a regular polyester shirt, but trust me, it's worth the extra money.

Dude, where's the track?

If you are a runner, chances are that, when faced with an upcoming move or planning a vacation to a new place, you might asked yourself - where is a good place to run near [insert your favorite place here] or is there a running track there? There are many ways to find an answer, but in today's age of Web 2.0 (or is it 3.0 yet?) where should you go first? But, of course, the web. With online mapping tools like maps.google.com, maps.ask.com, maps.yahoo.com, maps.live.com, and others, the quest for running places becomes much easier. If you are looking for running tracks, simply go to your favorite maps site and switch to the hybrid mode, input your intended location, and adjust the zoom level. Presto! Tracks are very easy to spot because of their oval shape with usually a patch of green in the middle. Also easily recognizable are running trails. This can also be used if you happen to be hunting for an apartment or house on craigslist. Most of the listings on craigslist have a link to a map. Click on it, switch to hybrid mode, and you can even measure distances from your intended location to the nearest track or trail.

If you are picky about measuring distances (like I am sometimes) then go to gmap-pedometer.com and zoom down to the level where you want, click "Start Recording." You can mark your entire route using a series of clicks on the maps and at each point (i.e., each click) it tells you the total distance. I use this quite regularly when I run new routes. This is especially useful when I want to figure out the distance between two points along my route where I know I can run fast without having to worry about traffic lights. Keep in mind, though, that this won't work as well if your route is hilly since the site doesn't account for elevation change. So, if you happen to be running up a mountain, it will tell you the distance in as-the-crow-flies terms, which invariably will be less than what you will be running.

Tools are cool, nevertheless, the good old method of asking people - in person or online - still remains useful, particularly if you want to know specific details about the neighborhood and other stuff that an online map site won't be able to tell you. Another good resource would be a running store in the neighborhood. Typically, most running store employees are runners themselves and have a good knowledge of places to run nearby.

Do you have any favored recipes for hunting down tracks and trails that you would like to share? Send me an email.

Good luck and happy tracking.

Prefontaine Classic 2007

Last weekend, I was at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. This is an annual invitational meet of the top track and field athletes in the world and is named after Steve Prefontaine, one of the greatest American runners of all time. This year's field was especially stellar - Maria Mutola, Craig Mottram, Alan Webb, the Bekele brothers, Bernard Lagat, Daniel Komen, Asafa Powell, Jeremy Wariner among others.

The meet started at 12:30 in the afternoon, but we got there at 11:00. Surprisingly, the best seats are in the general admission section AA which is right in front of the finish line. You just have to get there a bit early; it fills up quickly. When you go to buy tickets at the website, look at the layout of the track and the seating arrangements before buying the tickets.

The first event was the women's javelin throw, followed by the women's 400m hurdles. Then came the men's long jump. Here's a pic of the eventual winner Irving Saladino in action.



The men's 100m followed soon after with Darrel Brown winning in a relatively slow 10.42 seconds, probably because of the 2.1m/s headwind going against the field.

The men's 3000m steeplechase was next. Paul Koech (seen below) won in a time of 8:08.08 - a new Prefontaine Classic and a Hayward Field record.



Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, the 2004 Olympic gold medal winner was the favorite for the men's 800m race. He's known to sit back and kick it in towards the end. Even with about 1.5 laps gone, he was quite some ways behind the rest of the field, but then, true to reputation, he surged all the way to the front.



However, Nick Symmonds of the USA had other ideas and matched him stride for stride and beat him by width of a shoe - 17/100th of a second - in a new Pre Classic record of 1:44.54. He got quite an ovation on his victory lap.

All throughout this, the other field events were in progress - shot put, javelin, triple jump, long jump, high jump, and pole vault. At some points, I managed to see both the high jumper and the pole vaulter in the air at the same time.

Liu Xiang, the current world champion won the men's 110m hurdles and Torri Edwards won the women's 100m race. This was followed by the men's 400m dash and then the women's 1500 which was won by Gelete Burka of Ethiopia in a new Pre Classic record of 4:00.08.

Sanya Richards of the USA won the women's 400m in 50.74 giving way to what was probably the most anticipated event of the day - the men's 2 mile race. Among those lined up at the start : Craig Mottram (Bib #104 below), Tariku Bekele (#101), Alan Webb (#103), Matt Tegenkamp (#109), Dathan Ritzenhein (#102), Ben Limo (#105). Kenenisa Bekele dropped out at the last minute.



The race lived up to its expectations. Mottram and Bekele found themselves leading the pack quite soon and that stayed so till the end. Alan Webb was trailing behind and he never caught up. As they came down the final 100m stretch, with more than 30-40m to go, Mottram started celebrating, turning to the crowd and raising his right arm in victory. Bekele just didn't have it in him to catch up.



Mottram finished in a new Pre Classic and Hayward Field record of 8:03.50. Apparently, he gave quite the interview afterwards. Bekele was second, followed by Matt Tegenkamp in a new American record of 8:07.07. Here's Tegenkamp posing for the pictures after his finish.




Next was the women's 800m. Maria Mutola of Mozambique won it 1:58.33 and got the loudest ovation of the meet. Below is a picture of the field during the race.




Apparently, she used to live in Springfield, near Eugene, and the local folks love her. This was her 15th consecutive win at the Prefontaine meet. In terms of consistency, she is one of the all-time greats. Check out the pictures on my photo blog of her surrounded by photographers after her finish.

Next was the men's 200m which was supposed to be a match-up between the world 100m champion Asafa Powell, the 2004 Olympic gold winner in the 400m, Jeremy Wariner, and the 200m winner in the 2004 Olympics, Shawn Crawford. However, Xavier Carter decided not to play by the script and was the eventual winner, with Powell finishing in the third position and Wariner a distant sixth.

The last race was the men's 1 mile - the Bowerman mile, named after Bill Bowerman. Daniel Komen of Kenya won quite easily in 3:48.28, a new Pre Classic and Hayward Field record and the fastest mile ever on US soil. Bernard Lagat finished second.



Just like that, it started pouring heavily. The sun had been playing hide-and-seek behind the clouds all day but it was nice of the clouds to hold their rain till the end. This is what it looked like throughout the three hours we were there.



As we walked out the announcer started saying something about the Olympics trials next year on this field and out come a bulldozer and scooped up a giant chunk of the earth in the middle of the green field. Apparently, Hayward field is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation for the Olympic trials.

Eugene is a great place. I saw lots of runners while driving around. Lots of people including young kids and youth showed up for the meet indicating the strong support in the community for running. If you happen to be there on a Saturday, check out the Eugene Saturday Market. If you are driving you could stop by Crater Lake National Park which is about 140 miles away or Portland, about 110 miles away.

Saucony Trigons - absolutely great running shoes

Today, I took out a new pair of Saucony Trigon shoes to replace my current pair that has 800+ miles on them now. The shots below are those of one shoe from each pair - one with 800 miles and the other with 0 miles.




These have been great running shoes. I got them on www.finishline.com for $30 on clearance. After a few runs, I loved the first pair so much that I promptly went on to order a few more pairs. These have been very comfortable shoes. Most of my running is on the road and sometimes on dirt trails. The first pair lasted me for just over a 1000 miles before I gave them to a local shoe store for recycling. This is the original Trigon edition. Now they are up to Trigon 4.

Disclaimer: No, I don't work for Saucony or own any stake. Just a very satisfied customer.

A race in the park

This past weekend, I ran a 10K race. This was at the Shoreline Park in Mountain View, which houses the Shoreline Amphitheatre, a site for music concerts. This is what it looks like during the day.


More than a couple of years had passed since my last 10K which was in 2004 and which was essentially my last race. This was a condition-gauging race, with the prime objective being to see where I stand in my current state.

The race was conducted by a charity organization, Asha. One of my colleagues told me about them last year when he was training with them for a marathon. Check them out at ashanet.org. Their primary objective is education and they are very efficient in their fund-raising. Take a gander at their efficiency rating over at charitynavigator.org and you'll see that they score 39.70 out of a possible 40. Mighty impressive.

The race was an out-and-back course and started at 9:20 a.m., a wee bit late into the day for a warm spring day. Most of my races have started by 7-8 a.m. If I were primed for an optimal performance, that might have been a concern, but in this case, it just merely a passing thought. There were about a couple of hundred entrants in the 5K and 10K inclusive. This was a low key race and there was no gun to start us off, just a human voice counting down from 10 downwards. Off we started. I found myself bunched up behind a few slower runners and started weaving my way gently to the front where I found myself in a pack of about 10-12 people. Mile 1 came even before I realized - in 6:20. Mile 2 and 3 followed in 7:28 and 7:52. This part passed by marshlands and we found ourselves fighting swarms of little bugs, the kind that you find on ripe fruit. Trying to keep them from entering the eyes and mouth. However, my legs were starting to tire by now and so, eschewing mouth-breathing wasn't really all that difficult. The turn-around came soon after and miles 4 and 5 were in 7:55 and 7:49. This was even worse since, by now, my face was covered in sweat and going back through the buggy area saw me come out with dozens of bugs stuck on my neck and face. A few made their way into my eyes. Soon after mile 5, there was a marker which said 0.2. That was a neat concept which I haven't seen before. What this means is that, at this point, you are done with 5.2 of the 6.2 miles that constitute a 10K and that you have exactly one mile to the finish. If I were in better shape, that would have been an invitation to change gears and blast it all the way through the end. However, the combination of tired legs and the bugs prevented me even trying to do so. I did manage a slightly faster mile and finished in 7:14 for a total time of 45:18. I reckon I finished about 7th or 8th overall. My pace was 7:18 min/mile. Can't say I was too disappointed but I had been hoping for a sub-44 minute time since that would've given me a sub-7:00 pace.

The guy that finished just before me (about 20 seconds ahead) ran the entire race barefoot. Part of the course was over dirt trails and I was impressed. The overall winner was a Stanford University track team runner who finished in 32:XX while looking like he'd just finished a leisurely Sunday morning jog.

My weekly mileage for the month leading into this race was a bit on the low end - 12.5, 19, 18, 16, and 10 - in addition to about 85 miles of biking and 0 miles of speedwork. Speedwork was something that I'd last done back in 2004. So, overall, I wasn't exactly expecting to do too well, however, I was satisfied with what I did. At least I know where I stand and this gives me a base to shoot from for the next target. I think I'll be aiming for sub-40 which is a 6:27 pace. It'll be tough, but it has to be done. :)

Shoreline Park is a nice place, especially on a night where a full moon is rising. However, it's probably not the best place for a race if the race has to pass through swarms of marsh bugs.

New Year's in Joshua Tree

Got myself a circular polarizer filter last month. On New Year's day, found myself in Joshua Tree National Park looking up at this humongous cloud after a beautiful 3 mile run.

Joshua Tree is a beautiful desert. Once a year, in spring, the desert blooms and you'd never guess it was a desert if you looked at the pictures of the flowers blooming.

Effects of donating blood on running

The last few times I donated blood, I've been trying to see how it affects my running. A few months ago, I tried biking about five hours after blood donation. That felt alright. Next time too, I biked the same distance (~4 miles) and about 40 hours later, went for a 7 mile run. That too went off without problems - no blood, no tears, only sweat (it was a hot day). This month, I went for a 3.5 mile run at about 8:00 minute/mile pace and after about 5 hours, went in for the blood donation, and about 3 hours after that, went for another 3.5 mile run. I consciously dropped my pace to around 8:40 minutes/mile from my usual easy run pace of 8:00 minutes/mile since this was a first experience for me. I was mentally prepared to slow down to 9+ minute pace and even walk if needed, but, to my pleasant surprise I had no problems whatsoever. Indeed, at the end of the run, I felt that I could have gone at 8:00. Next time I think I will increase either the distance or the speed, most likely the distance.

One of the things that happens with blood donation is that you instantaneously lose a pound of body weight. Maybe that makes you a bit faster. Of course, don't tell that to the nurse at the blood center. This time, when one of them found out that I run, she made it a point of telling me - "Absolutely no running for at least 24 hours."

Browsing the web, I came across a wide spectrum of experiences that other people had - from feeling absolutely normal to feeling very weak, from nausea to headaches. If you are racing, then blood donation seems to have more of an effect than if you are simply out for a jog. However, I wasn't able to find any specific study on this subject. I'll post links here if I find them.

San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon

Today I went to the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll half marathon.This was the inaugural edition. I went there to see Meb Keflezighi, the American champ. Unfortunately, by the time I reached there it was about 8-9 minutes past the hour. The winner, Duncan Kibet, had already finished in 1:00:22, which, according to the announcer, was the second fastest time on U.S. soil, after Haile Gebreselassie's. Later I checked the results and couldn't find Keflezighi on there. Wonder if he didn't show up or didn't finish?

The shot above is that of the women's winner - Silvia Skvortsova of Russia. The other shot is that of a guy in a mohawk. Check the time - 80 minutes. That's about a 6:07 pace. Pretty impressive. Wonder how many minutes he could shave off if he shaved off his mohawk. There was another guy a few minutes later, wearing what looked like capris.

Encounter with a hawk

This past weekend, we went to a nearby park to get in a leisurely run. After the run, we were cooling down by the lake, looking at the little ducks on the water, when out of the blue skies something descended swiftly. Not Superman, not an airplane, but a bird, and at a speed much faster than a 4 minute mile pace. We turned and looked - it was a hawk with a pigeon gripped tightly in its claws. I was lucky that I had my camera with me. Over the next half hour, I watched the hawk literally eviscerate its prey. Here are a few pictures from its Sunday brunch. In one of the pictures, you can see a sailboat on the lake in the background in the right.

Running in Alaska

I was in Alaska this month for a couple of weeks. Summer is Alaska has got to be the best time and place on this planet for running. Long days and many trails. Anchorage, which is in the south, gets about 20 hours of daylight. Technically, the sun rises around 4 a.m. and sets around midnight at this time of the year (mid June to mid maJuly). However, even those 3-4 hours without the sun are kind of like a twilight zone - you can see everything quite well. The city seems to be crawling with trails. Two minutes into a trail and you don't feel that you are in a city. What this all means is that you can go out for a great run whenever you feel like it, without having to worry about the need to carry little LED lights or about getting back before it turns dark.

From Anchorage, I hopped on to Seward, a port city about 120 miles south and the site of the second oldest race in the USA - the Mt. Marathon race. This 3.5 mile race is held every year on the 4th of July and this year was the 79th edition. It starts from the town (at the intersection of 4th and Jefferson) and goes about a half mile on the streets before hitting the base of Mt. Marathon. What follows next is just under 1.5 miles of unmaintained trails that seriously question your ability to persevere, while taking you up 3022 feet (from the 30 feet elevation at the start), with the average slope being 38 degrees and the maximum being 60 degrees. Far from a little hike in the woods. (Check out the caution notice in the picture.) The total race is about 3.5 miles and the record for the course is 43 min 23 sec, set in 1981. Getting into the race is next to impossible if you are a first-time aspirant. You can pay your $45 application and hope it gets selected in the lottery. Most likely, you will end up writing it off as a donation. If not, there's always the auction for 10 slots, which is held the day before the race. This year the highest winning bid was $1170. During the July 4th weekend, the town's population swells from about 2500 to about 30,000.



















I didn't make the selection cut, and didn't feel the desire to shell out a thousand bucks, and so, instead I decided to run (more like a fast hike) up Mt. Marathon by myself, a couple of days before the actual race. I made my way up slowly, struggling to summon all my horsepower in order to lift my weight against gravity and a much more formidable entity - the slope of the mountain. Combine this with the slippery trail and you find yourself in situations where you are hiking all hunched up (think of an imaginary 50 lb backpack on your back) or just plainly on all fours like a bear, except much slower. Time passed by, almost in slow-motion, until, finally, I found myself at the top, looking down below at an amazing view of the entire bay below. It's a beautiful sight from the top well worth all the trouble. Coming down is equally challening. It took me just under an hour to do the whole thing from the base of the mountain. After the hike, I fueled myself at the Resurrection Art Coffee House, a cute little coffee shop at the intersection of 3rd and Jefferson, followed by lunch at a Greek restaurant - Apollo. Salmon pizza! One of the best I've ever had. Seward is a cute little town. Check it out.

Another place to get in some great running is Denali National Park - about 240 miles north of Anchorage. Here, the sun sets after midnight and is back up around 3:30 a.m. I had one of the most memorable runs ever - at 2 a.m. Beautiful, surreal twilight - like the kind you see in some of the movies. I went for a 3 mile run along the road, with not a soul in sight. The only moving entity I encountered was a fox with a rabbit in its mouth - early breakfast. Denali is beautiful - and that's an understatement.

Alaska is an absolute paradise for running. At least, in the summer. Winter might be a different story, but that's another topic for another day.

runtheplanet.com - running routes around the world

www.runtheplanet.com is a site with descriptions of over 4200 routes in over 3100 cities all over the world. It's been running since 1996 and is still going strong. I find myself quite often referring people to this site when they are looking for places to run on a trip somewhere, especially to other countries. I've added a couple of descriptions myself. I encourage you to take a look and while you're there, add a few of your favorite routes.

There are other forums, newsgroups, and bulletin boards where you could find more information about running in specific cities by posting a question or by searching the archived messages. However, what I like about runtheplanet.com is that I can simply type in the city name and it will take me to a page with descriptions of all the routes for that city. The difference is that it is solely focused on running routes unlike other media where there is a lot more information about a lot more topics.